Toilet is going to kill me!!

Please help me someone, I live in a rental, and ofcourse, my landlord wont do anything to fix the problem, he did the plumbing himself, so ofcourse theres nothing wrong with it. But there is. I am cleaning up water atleast twice a month from toilet overflowing, the other toilet is constantly gurgleing, and the water in the one that over flows all the time is always running, i have to jiggle the handle to get it to "stop" and I know this has to be running up my water bill too doesnt it?! ARRRGH! Please, give me advice before I call a plumber so I can speak intelligently with him/her so I know what they are talking about. What do I need to do and what do I need to know. Thanks so much for any responses on this Thanksgiving Eve. P.s I just finished cleaning up the floor again. LOL

Please help me someone, I live in a rental, and ofcourse, my landlord wont do anything to fix the problem, he did the plumbing himself, so ofcourse theres nothing wrong with it. But there is. I am cleaning up water atleast twice a month from toilet overflowing, the other toilet is constantly gurgleing, and the water in the one that over flows all the time is always running, i have to jiggle the handle to get it to "stop" and I know this has to be running up my water bill too doesnt it?! ARRRGH! Please, give me advice before I call a plumber so I can speak intelligently with him/her so I know what they are talking about. What do I need to do and what do I need to know. Thanks so much for any responses on this Thanksgiving Eve. P.s I just finished cleaning up the floor again. LOL

Click to expand...

You pay your own water bill?
You're prepared to cover the cost of the plumber?
The toilet you're jiggling just needs some maintenance, total do it yourself kind of thing and zero to $20 in parts. The overflowing toilet is probably doing so because it's just a badly designed toilet-- not sure what a plumber can do about that. Gurgling suggests poor flow and/or vent problems in the wall. Also not something a tenant is going to take on.
Maybe say more about the overflowing-- does it just happen spontaneously?

If you call a plumber and he has been plumbing long enough to be a good one he will not work on a Tennant's apartment / house rental. Legally you need the owners permission to work on property that is not yours. If the home caught fire or something happened he could claim the plumber did not have permission to be there doing work.

The toilet running sounds like a out of adjustment flapper. If you take off the lid and flush the toilet so that it duplicates the problem you should be able to look in the tank when you jiggle the handle and see what happens to stop the water from running. Once you do that you should be able to figure out what to do to fix that problem. Being a novice you may have to do it a few times to figure it out.

The rest of the problems could be attributed to a bad toilet and bad DWV system or a combination of both by your description.

Yes, I pay my own water bill, stinks huh. lol So thanks to those whose responded, I will look in the tank and see if I can figure that problem out myself. And I guess I'll call the landlord and get his permission to have a plumber out checking the vents. Thanks again everyone!!

I think you have two problems. The flapper is probably needs replacing, and then there is a problem with the drain. Maybe vent, but more likely a partial clog. You can fix the flapper easily, but I think a plumber is called for to deal with the backups.

2. Adjust the new flapper chain so it stays open for the longest time possible, giving you the maximum flush.

If the toilet still backs up, plunge the heck out of it. If that doesn't work, buy a toilet auger and snake it out.

If that doesn't work, tell your slumlord he must call a plumber or you will.

Keep good records of everything. Pictures work very well in these types of situations. Deduct all of your expenses from the rent. He'll piss and moan for awhile, but then he'll get over it, especially after you show him the pictures.

Verdeboy, out here with holding rent will get you evicted. If you with hold rent it must be posted with the court. You can't just keep it in your pocket. Reason is many people who don't have the rent $$ will say there is a problem when there is none just to keep from paying.

If you call a plumber and pay him your out the $$$ and still must pay rent in full.
I have a customer who has well over 150 scattered housing units. He has evicted people who owed him $1500.00-$2000.00. and Received a judgment.

Fast forward 4 years. He now has a guy who he is selling the judgments to and is showing up with the judgment and interest ready to garnish their wages. Many unhappy people who thought they had screwed the landlord.

While landlords get slammed for not doing work on rentals I see the other side where people think a landlord is someone who is so rich they don't have to pay the rent if they fall on hard times or need to buy some alcohol or drugs instead. Kind of the same mentality that it's O.K. to rip off the big box stores because they make so much $$$.

I was a landlord in Michigan for several years and the deck and more and more became stacked in favor of the tenant. Always kept my places in good order. Became more and more that newer tenants thought I owed them a living.

Doing service work for so many years, I saw just about everything. What seemed like good people turned out to be people that if it wasn't theirs, to bad for the owner.

I'm from a time when if it wasn't your property you made sure you cared for it for the the other guy.

If the toilet overflows repeatedly you may have a health department issue. Of course, if they declare the apartment uninhabitable, you'd better have another place to go to, which might not be a bad idea anyway.